I had the 24-120 and I have 24-70. The first one is really nice lens, small and lightweight; however the second one IQ is far better, unfortunately in direct comparison it lacks the additional 50mm that You can get from the 24-120mm.

I think that Nikon has drastically scaled back their production. My guess is that any of the lenses produced in Japan (presumeably by Nikon employees) are probably going to be in short supply. I'm sure they will get a new batch out in the next month or two.